It is the International Day of Happiness on Monday March 20 and there is reason for hope, according to the most recent study on global happiness, which found benevolence levels were higher than they were before the Covid pandemic broke out.
The United Nations has just published its annual ranking of the world’s happiest countries. The research takes into account six key factors that influence how happy people are: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and the absence of corruption. It also investigates the distribution of happiness within countries to assess the gap between happy and unhappy people.
Which are the happiest countries?
For the sixth year in a row, Finland has been named the world's happiest nation. In Finland, people are more likely to think stolen wallets will be returned. Other factors such as income, freedom of choice and life expectancy explain why this country keeps coming out on top.
The top three countries in this report are all within the Nordic region, with Denmark and Iceland placing second and third.
Denmark is widely known as having some of the highest tax rates in the world but that results in high-quality public services, a factor in its population consistently ranking as one of the happiest in the world.
Israel, which moved up five places from last year’s study where it ranked ninth, now takes the fourth spot.
According to the OECD, Israel outperforms many other countries when it comes to health, social connections and life satisfaction.
The 10 happiest nations in the world do not include the UK. It does, however, rank among the top 20. This year, it is the 19th-happiest nation in the world, trailing behind Australia (12), Canada (13), Ireland (14) and the United States (15).
While the same nations frequently make the top 20 each year, Lithuania is a newcomer this time around and France dropped out of the top 20 to number 21 in this year’s report.
The Baltic countries have consistently risen over the previous six years. Lithuania has moved up from 52nd place in 2017 to 20th place. Meanwhile, Latvia (41) and Estonia (31) have been moving up the rankings as well.
Nations ranked lower for happiness
Afghanistan is ranked 137th, which is at the very bottom of the list. At number 136, Lebanon is one position higher. On a scale from 0 to 10, these nations' average life ratings are more than five points worse than those of the 10 happiest nations.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have lowered both countries’ ranking – Russia is 70th and Ukraine is 92nd.
The report, which is a product of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, is based on data collected in more than 150 nations from a global survey of people.
Based on the average life evaluations made over the three years prior – in this example, 2020 to 2022 – countries are rated according to how happy their populations are.
